Does Rick Perry Have a Performance Problem?

Liberals, whose entire political strategy is the smoke and mirrors of showbiz, have concluded that Rick Perry put in a poor performance at last week's Republican debate and has got to step up his debating technique to get back in the game.

Actually, it wasn't Perry's "performance" that was a problem. It was his "answers."

No fancy wordsmithery is going to get Perry out of supporting in-state tuition for illegal aliens. (Although I did think it was nice that he gave his answer in Spanish.)

We are not Democrats.

We already had a Republican president and both political parties try to foist amnesty on us. The country erupted in rage, forced Congress to withdraw Bush's "comprehensive immigration reform" and rewarded Bush with a humiliating defeat in the 2006 midterm elections.

It wasn't Perry's delivery; it was his policy that Republicans -- and apparently a lot of Democrats and independents -- don't like. Hispanic citizens who have undergone the arduous process of becoming citizens the legal way aren't crazy about the idea either.

When the audience booed Perry, it wasn't booing a former Air Force captain. It was booing in-state tuition for illegal aliens.

Similarly, the audience was not "booing a soldier" during one of the video questions, as the media, president and vice president have alleged. The audience was booing the soldier's demand that Republican presidential candidates commit to not overturning a sleazy partisan vote taken in the twilight days of the heavily Democratic 2010 Congress.

In my job as communications director of Defenders of Republicans Unfairly Attacked by the Media and Then Immediately Sold Out by Their Fellow Republicans (DORUAMATISOTFR), I am required to point out that the question and audience reaction went like this:

"In 2010, when I was deployed to Iraq ..."

(No booing.)

"I had to lie about who I was ..."

(No booing -- despite the fact that not talking about your sex life with your co-workers is not lying about who you are. In fact, many Americans manage quite easily to go days and days without talking about their sex lives with co-workers.)

"because I'm a gay soldier ..."

(No booing, although we didn't ask and would prefer that you not tell.)

"and I didn't want to lose my job."

(No booing.)

To recap: So far, a remarkably boo-free interaction.

Finally, we got to the question: "My question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?"